KETTON. CHURCH : ST MARY THE VIRGIN
The first Saturday in June 2007, a cloudless blue sky and the Sun belting down nearly all day. After a very hard week at work I decoded on a mini churchcrawling tour of Rutland, with Ketton my first point of call. This was followed by neighbouring Tinwell and then on to Whitwell, near to Empingham.
To start off with though it appeared as if the day was going to be a dead loss with regards the weather. Early morning mist and fog gave way to heavy cloud for a time. The Sun first broke through as I was on my way to Ketton, and it blasted down for the rest of the day.
Ketton is a very picturesque village close to Stamford. My first ever visit to Ketton, and it was a lot bigger than I thought it would be. I mentioned to someone some time ago that I thought it impossible to ever find an ugly place in Rutland....found one here though in the large Ketton Cement works on the edge of the village!
The church of St Mary the virgin was imposing to say the least. Massive spire, with some very fine and intricately carved figures on it. In the church grounds I was interested to see a row of old gravestones gathered together to form a wall which separated a path from the burial area. I have seen this before at other churches in Rutland, but have not seen it elsewhere in my very limited experience.
Very nice arches on the West side of the church, which I believe date from before 1200 AD. The church was open and inside it was bright and attractive, pretty much typical of what I had previously seen in the county. Some very decent stained glass in this one as well.
Very friendly locals as well. Nice to chat to a lady who had lived in the village for nearly 40 years, and who was obviously, and quite rightly, extremely proud of her church.
A very pleasant time spent here. Next call Tinwell, a mile and a half away. With the bus service infrequent in that neck of the woods, I decided to walk it. Beautiful scenery between the two villages. Well worth a look if you are in the area at all.
